After five days of exhaustion and hardships, Muslim pilgrims were saddened to see the annual hajj come to a close on Friday, ending what for many is a spiritual high point of their lives.
"Bidding farewell is hard," said Afaf al-Nuweihi, her voice choking with emotion. "I wish I could stay longer -- in a place of worship where you pray and get closer to God."
Al-Nuweihi, a 61-year-old retired teacher from Egypt, spent her nights during the hajj sleeping on roadsides in her tent and her days moving from ritual to ritual with some 3 million other pilgrims. Still, she was ecstatic.
PHOTO: AP
"I feel I am born again. Hajj is all about enduring hardship and suffering in order to wash away our sins," she said. "I hope God will give me strength to sustain my hajj spirituality after I get back home because it's going to be difficult for me to come back again."
Amina Hallaq, a 47-year old Syrian, sat on a plastic mat on the pavement.
"I'd even be happy if we could stay at least another week," she said. "Believe me, I am sad to be leaving."
After performing the ritual of stoning pillars that represent the devil in Mina on Friday, pilgrims proceeded to the nearby holy city of Mecca to bid "farewell" to the Kaaba by circling it seven times in the final rite of the hajj. Muslims around the world face the cube-shaped stone structure draped in black cloth during the five daily prayers.
The pilgrimage ended without any major incidents, but even as the pilgrims were preparing to journey back to their countries on Friday, the Interior Ministry announced it had arrested a group of militants plotting to disrupt the hajj with attacks on the holy sites.
Interior Ministry spokesman Mansour al-Turki said the arrests came about a week ago but gave no further details on the number or identity of those arrested. Saudi-owned satellite television station Al-Arabiya described the suspects as Saudis.
Thousands milled through the massive four-story mosque in the center of Mecca housing the Kaaba and completed the final steps of their pilgrimage with more than a hint of sadness.
"It is a difficult and bitter thing," Fadhel Abdallah, a 33-year-old Yemeni petroleum engineer, said as he sat in the mosque reading his Koran. "The atmosphere here is so spiritual that one cannot experience it anywhere else."
On the last day of the hajj, pilgrims also walk the distance between hills in Safa and Marwa, re-enacting the search by Abraham's wife, Hagar, for water for her infant son Ishmael in the desert. After her seventh run, the spring known as Zamzam emerged miraculously under Ishmael's feet.
"I feel like I am flying on an angel's wings," said Abbas Ibrahimi, a 50-year-old Iranian teacher. "I feel my feet are not on the ground."
"Can there be any better place than here?" interjected Gol-Abroo Qazizadeh, 67, a fellow Iranian.
"I'm honored to be destined to come here. My son died six months ago and I got a chance to pray for his soul in God's House," Qazizadeh said, referring to the Kaaba.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS